"Despite partial blindness in one eye caused by a piece of flying steel while working at his forge a year before the war, Will Flora was accepted into the Army and assigned to Company F, Fourth Tennessee Infantry, USA at Barboursville, KY on March 1, 1862 for a 3-year enlistment. He became a blacksmith, artificer and teamster. By late summer the Fourth Tennessee was stationed at Cumberland Gap but was soon forced to retreat to Portland, OH. In November, the Fourth Tennessee was refitted with horses and became the First Tennessee Cavalry, USA. It would become one of the most heavily engaged cavalry units in the western theater of the war."
(from "From Fleury to Flora" by Don Sheridan)
